O Siblings of Destiny, you perform devotional worship indoors, but read the Islamic sacred texts, and adopt the Muslim way of life. Renounce your hypocrisy! Taking the Naam, the Name of the Lord, you shall swim across. || 1 || FIRST MEHL: The man-eaters say their prayers. Those who wield the knife wear the sacred thread around their necks. In their homes, the Brahmins sound the conch. They too have the same taste. False is their capital, and false is their trade. Speaking falsehood, they take their food. The home of modesty and Dharma is far from them. O Nanak, they are totally permeated with falsehood. The sacred marks are on their foreheads, and the saffron loin-cloths are around their waists; in their hands they hold the knives – they are the butchers of the world! Wearing blue robes, they seek the approval of the Muslim rulers.
Accepting bread from the Muslim rulers, they still worship the Puraanas. They eat the meat of the goats, killed after the Muslim prayers are read over them, but they do not allow anyone else to enter their kitchen areas. They draw lines around them, plastering the ground with cowdung. The false come and sit within them. They cry out, “Do not touch our food, or it will be polluted!” But with their polluted bodies, they commit evil deeds.With filthy minds, they try to cleanse their mouths. Says Nanak, meditate on the True Lord. If you are pure, you will obtain the True Lord. || 2 || PAUREE: All are within Your mind; You see and move them under Your Glance of Grace, O Lord. You Yourself grant them glory, and You Yourself cause them to act.
The Lord is the greatest of the great; great is His world. He enjoins all to their tasks. If he should cast an angry glance, He can transform kings into blades of grass. Even though they may beg from door to door, no one will give them charity. || 16 || SHALOK, FIRST MEHL: The thief robs a house, and offers the stolen goods to his ancestors. In the world hereafter, this is recognized, and his ancestors are considered thieves as well. The hands of the go-between are cut off; this is the Lord’s justice. O Nanak, in the world hereafter, that alone is received, which one gives to the needy from his own earnings and labor.
|| 1 || FIRST MEHL: As a woman has her periods, month after month, so does falsehood dwell in the mouth of the false; they suffer forever, again and again. They are not called pure, who sit down after merely washing their bodies. Only they are pure, O Nanak, within whose minds the Lord abides.
|| 2 || PAUREE: With saddled horses, as fast as the wind, and harems decorated in every way; in houses and pavilions and lofty mansions, they dwell, making ostentatious shows. They act out their minds’ desires, but they do not understand the Lord, and so they are ruined. Asserting their authority, they eat, and beholding their mansions, they forget about death. But old age comes, and youth is lost.
|| 17 || SHALOK, FIRST MEHL: If one accepts the concept of impurity, then there is impurity everywhere. In cow-dung and wood there are worms. As many as are the grains of corn, none is without life. First, there is life in the water, by which everything else is made green. How can it be protected from impurity? It touches our own kitchen. O Nanak, impurity cannot be removed in this way; it is washed away only by spiritual wisdom.
|| 1 || FIRST MEHL: The impurity of the mind is greed, and the impurity of the tongue is falsehood. The impurity of the eyes is to gaze upon the beauty of another man’s wife, and his wealth. The impurity of the ears is to listen to the slander of others. O Nanak, the mortal’s soul goes, bound and gagged to the city of Death.
|| 2 || FIRST MEHL: All impurity comes from doubt and attachment to duality. Birth and death are subject to the Command of the Lord’s Will; through His Will we come and go. Eating and drinking are pure, since the Lord gives nourishment to all. O Nanak, the Gurmukhs, who understand the Lord, are not stained by impurity.
|| 3 || PAUREE: Praise the Great True Guru; within Him is the greatest greatness.When the Lord causes us to meet the Guru, then we come to see them. When it pleases Him, they come to dwell in our minds. By His Command, when He places His hand on our foreheads, wickedness departs from within. When the Lord is thoroughly pleased, the nine treasures are obtained.
|| 18 || SHALOK, FIRST MEHL: First, purifying himself, the Brahmin comes and sits in his purified enclosure. The pure foods, which no one else has touched, are placed before him. Being purified, he takes his food, and begins to read his sacred verses. But it is then thrown into a filthy place – whose fault is this? The corn is sacred, the water is sacred; the fire and salt are sacred as well; when the fifth thing, the ghee, is added, then the food becomes pure and sanctified. Coming into contact with the sinful human body, the food becomes so impure that is is spat upon.
That mouth which does not chant the Naam, and without the Name eats tasty foods – O Nanak, know this: such a mouth is to be spat upon. || 1 || FIRST MEHL: From woman, man is born; within woman, man is conceived; to woman he is engaged and married. Woman becomes his friend; through woman, the future generations come. When his woman dies, he seeks another woman; to woman he is bound. So why call her bad? From her, kings are born. From woman, woman is born; without woman, there would be no one at all. O Nanak, only the True Lord is without a woman. That mouth which praises the Lord continually is blessed and beautiful. O Nanak, those faces shall be radiant in the Court of the True Lord. || 2 || PAUREE: All call You their own, Lord; one who does not own You, is picked up and thrown away. Everyone receives the rewards of his own actions; his account is adjusted accordingly. Since one is not destined to remain in this world anyway, why should he ruin himself in pride? Do not call anyone bad; read these words, and understand. Don’t argue with fools.
|| 19 || SHALOK, FIRST MEHL: O Nanak, speaking insipid words, the body and mind become insipid. He is called the most insipid of the insipid; the most insipid of the insipid is his reputation. The insipid person is discarded in the Court of the Lord, and the insipid one’s face is spat upon. The insipid one is called a fool; he is beaten with shoes in punishment. || 1 || FIRST MEHL: Those who are false within, and honorable on the outside, are very common in this world. Even though they may bathe at the sixty-eight sacred shrines of pilgrimage, still, their filth does not depart. Those who have silk on the inside and rags on the outside, are the good ones in this world.
They embrace love for the Lord, and contemplate beholding Him. In the Lord’s Love, they laugh, and in the Lord’s Love, they weep, and also keep silent. They do not care for anything else, except their True Husband Lord. Sitting, waiting at the Lord’s Door, they beg for food, and when He gives to them, they eat. There is only One Court of the Lord, and He has only one pen; there, you and I shall meet. In the Court of the Lord, the accounts are examined; O Nanak, the sinners are crushed, like oil seeds in the press. || 2 || PAUREE: You Yourself created the creation; You Yourself infused Your power into it. You behold Your creation, like the losing and winning dice of the earth. Whoever has come, shall depart; all shall have their turn. He who owns our soul, and our very breath of life – why should we forget that Lord and Master from our minds? With our own hands, let us resolve our own affairs.
|| 20 || SHALOK, SECOND MEHL: What sort of love is this, which clings to duality? O Nanak, he alone is called a lover, who remains forever immersed in absorption. But one who feels good only when good is done for him, and feels bad when things go badly – do not call him a lover. He trades only for his own account. || 1 || SECOND MEHL: One who offers both respectful greetings and rude refusal to his master, has gone wrong from the very beginning. O Nanak, both of his actions are false; he obtains no place in the Court of the Lord. || 2 || PAUREE: Serving Him, peace is obtained; meditate and dwell upon that Lord and Master forever. Why do you do such evil deeds, that you shall have to suffer so? Do not do any evil at all; look ahead to the future with foresight. So throw the dice in such a way, that you shall not lose with your Lord and Master. Do those deeds which shall bring you profit.
|| 21 || SHALOK, SECOND MEHL: If a servant performs service, while being vain and argumentative, he may talk as much as he wants, but he shall not be pleasing to his Master. But if he eliminates his self-conceit and then performs service, he shall be honored. O Nanak, if he merges with the one with whom he is attached, his attachment becomes acceptable. || 1 || SECOND MEHL: Whatever is in the mind, comes forth; spoken words by themselves are just wind. He sows seeds of poison, and demands Ambrosial Nectar. Behold – what justice is this? || 2 || SECOND MEHL: Friendship with a fool never works out right. As he knows, he acts; behold, and see that it is so. One thing can be absorbed into another thing, but duality keeps them apart. No one can issue commands to the Lord Master; offer instead humble prayers. Practicing falsehood, only falsehood is obtained. O Nanak, through the Lord’s Praise, one blossoms forth.
|| 3 || SECOND MEHL: Friendship with a fool, and love with a pompous person, are like lines drawn in water, leaving no trace or mark. || 4 || SECOND MEHL: If a fool does a job, he cannot do it right. Even if he does something right, he does the next thing wrong. || 5 || PAUREE: If a servant, performing service, obeys the Will of his Master, his honor increases, and he receives double his wages. But if he claims to be equal to his Master, he earns his Master’s displeasure. He loses his entire salary, and is also beaten on his face with shoes. Let us all celebrate Him, from whom we receive our nourishment. O Nanak, no one can issue commands to the Lord Master; let us offer prayers instead. || 22 || SHALOK, SECOND MEHL: What sort of gift is this, which we receive only by our own asking? O Nanak, that is the most wonderful gift, which is received from the Lord, when He is totally pleased.
|| 1 || SECOND MEHL: What sort of service is this, by which the fear of the Lord Master does not depart? O Nanak, he alone is called a servant, who merges with the Lord Master. || 2 || PAUREE: O Nanak, the Lord’s limits cannot be known; He has no end or limitation. He Himself creates, and then He Himself destroys. Some have chains around their necks, while some ride on many horses. He Himself acts, and He Himself causes us to act.